As well as watching classic Film Noirs, we also looked at the more contemporary adaption of Film Noirs, 'Neo Noir's. It is a style often seen in modern films and is described that they "prominently utilize elements of Film Noir, but with updated themes, content, style, visual elements or media that were absent in film noir of the 1940s and 1950s." This style could be suited well to us as we are making a Film Noir in modern day.
There are mainly the same key characters as in Film Noir; a male protagonist as the main character, and there is a femme fatale, Laura, who tries to seduce him, seen in the picture to the right with and expensive looking coat and accessories, with her hair and makeup neatly done. She is also seen in the film in stilettos and a red dress, classic femme fatale. However there is a character not usually seen in Noirs, the protagonists friend and aid, 'The Brain', but this works well. Also, being set in a high school, there are unconvential characters such as the vice principal, who plays an interesting part in this taking a role of what would be a boss in the conventional Noirs. He asks for Brendan's help in the investigation over Emily. In the end of the story, Brendan ends up the victor, solving the mystery and handing in the Femme fatale to the authority (the vice principal). Usually in Film Noir, the femme fatale ends on top and the protagonist not, but the storyline of Brick makes an interesting twist to this, as although technically he has won, at the last minute Laura tells Brendan that "Emily was three months pregnant when she died" implying the baby was his. This leaves a new unsettlement to the protagonist, and a one up to the Femme Fatale.
The Big Sleep, released in 1946, is another classic Film Noir I watched. The storyline is revolved around the male protagonist, Philip Marlow, who is a private detective. He is summoned by the dying General Sternwood, and asked to deal with several problems that are troubling his family, consisting of two Femme Fatale daughter. The story includes blackmail, seduction and murders. In the film many conventions are seen; smoking, shadows, urban settings and low key lighting for example.
Carmen is the younger daughter Femme Fatale, being the one who had murdered a man and planned to murder Philip the same way at the end of the story, after failing to seduce him (in one scene she lays waiting for him in his apartment, naked on his bed, but he kicks her out). Throughout the film she acts innocent and young, playing with her hair etc, although she is secretly very twisted. She also is involved in illegal pornography, posing for a photoshoot in the film.
The older daughter, Vivien Sternwood Rutledge, is a Femme Fatale too in some aspects as she too is well made up and seductive like her younger sister. However she is more mature and independant, being intelligent and good at comebacks to Marlow. She leads the protagonist astray, but unlike some Femme Fatales I think she genuinely falls in love with Marlow as he does, although having a missing husband makes things complicated.
Before making our own Film Noir, we needed to watch existing Film Noir movies in order to make a realistic Film Noir, looking at techniques and styles of filming and acting.
First of all I watched 'Double Indemnity' (1944). The film was set in 1938, and the main male protagonist is Walter Neff, an insurance salesman. He meets the femme fatale character, Phyllis Dietrichson, as one of his clients, and they have an affair. Fitting with Film Noir conventions, Phyllis leads the protagonist astray by talking him into an insurance fraud scheme which includes murder of Phyllis's husband. But insurance investigator Barton Keyes becomes suspicious, and Walter Neff gets caught in the end.
Being in black and white and full of themes and conventions of Film Noir, Double Indemnity is a classic of the style. It includes many features that makes it effective, for example the lighting used; there is lined lighting in the house scene from use of venissian blinds - venissian blinds are used multiple times, also in the office. Later in the house scene no lights are in the house - the only light comes from street lamps outside. Also in the office scene, single source lighting is used, a single desk lamp, drawing the attention to that spot and lighting up Walter's face. The close up camera shot shows his sweat, telling the audience he's nervous. Other classic conventions they show are people smoking alot, and indoors. This helped make scenes more mysterious and hidden. Also bad weather was seen a lot, with heavy rain and dull, cloudy weather - this was pathetic fallacy, implying that something bad was happening.
The Femme fatale character is also classic Noir, as she is depicted as beautiful and seductive, with typical blonde hair in a fancy hair do and wearing makeup, as well as classy clothes and jewellery. She also gets Walter to fall for her, and pretends to love him, and has a twisted past being a murderer, killing her current husbands old wife to be with him, and then in the film killing her husband being bored of him and wanting money, so shows her as a golddigger.
Todorov's Narrative Theory
Izetan Todorov was a Bulgarian structuralist linguist, who suggested that conventional narratives are structured in five stages:
- A state of equilibrium at the beginning.
- A disruption of the equilibrium by some action.
- A recognition that there has been a disruption.
- An attempt to repair the disruption.
- A reinstatement of the equilibrium.
This type of narrative structure can be applied to many ‘mainstream’ film narratives.
Film Noir's generally follow this structure, however they rarely restore the equilibrium, instead they find a new one, where the resolution is rarely one which the protagonists want.
Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze/Feminist Theory
Laura Mulvey coined the term ‘Male Gaze’ in 1975. She believes that in film audiences have to ‘view’ characters from the perspective of a heterosexual male, and that the role of women in film was merely passive. Mulvey suggests that women are placed in the passive position in three ways:
1. through character portrayal within the narrative
2. through spectator perception of the female
3. through the controlling gaze of the camera which objectified women
The role is to be the treasure, to be sought after and found, while being looked at by both men and women. They also halt the action of the males, which is shown on screen by the camera lingering on the female form.
This theory is proven in Film Noirs. According to male desire, the female is aligned with one of two ideals, the virtuous maiden or the ‘scarlet woman’. In Film Noir that is most often the 'scarlet woman' - the femme fatale who is seductive, beautiful and often wearing red lipstick. In her introduction to Women in Film Noir, E. Ann Kaplan discusses women in their ‘fixed role as wives, mothers, daughters, lovers, mistresses, whores’, providing the ‘background for the ideological work of the film which is carried out by men. The camera also objectifies the women in Film Noir, appearing as objects on show. A slow pan of the camera from toe to head focuses slowly on each individual body part, and shows their materialistic appearance focusing on their costumes, jewellery and hair. It is also clear that we see the females in Film Noir from the male protagonists viewpoint. However, in Film Noir the women often became the ones on top in the end, who have won. So women, with her newly found role as a result of the wartime effort, represented the threat of modern society to the male.
Film Noir was a term applied by french critics in the 1940's to describe american thrillers/detective films. Film Noir is not necessarily a genre but instead a describing a period of time in film; after World War 2 films were often dark and depressing with a rarely happy ending, usually showing thebad guys getting away with their crimes.
Conventions of The Film Noir Style
Film Noir films achieved their style through use of expressionistic lighting, including ominous shadows and having many scenes in the night/dark in a bleak urban setting. In the camera work there are disorientating visuals, depth of field and skewed, powerful camera angles. You would also usually see the characters smoking cigars or cigarettes, creating effective gloomy smoke in the air.
Key Characters
The Protagonist
The main character, usually male, who tends to be cynical and disillusioned, and often becomes an 'anti-hero' having a murky pasts and not being a typical good guy. However the audience usually feels sympathetic for the character and identifies them as the hero of the story. Clothing often featured trilby hats and dark suits.
Femme Fatale
The femme fatale is a french phrase to describe the main female in Film Noir, which translates to deadly/fatal female. The woman is beautiful and independant, as well as being seductive, mysterious and overall dangerous. She would almost always be wearing a lot of makeup including dark lipstick, mascara and eye liner, as well as having expensive looking dresses, shoes and jewellery. The protagonist usually gets caught up in her schemes, where she manipulates the man to become the 'fall guy'.
Story lines
Story lines were often twisted, the narratives being complex, maze-like, typically told with foreboding background music, including flashbacks with witty, sharp dialogue and a confessional, first-person voice-over narrator. A common plot device was the downfall of an innocent man who fell victim to temptation or was framed, as well as amnesia suffered by the protagonist. Revelations would be made during the story regarding the hero, explaining and justifying his own cynical perspective on life.
